Monday, October 06, 2008

Last Saturday I took a look at the windy and cool conditions outside and tried to talk my son into a ride. "No daddy, it's too windy". As it turns out, he was right.

I really wanted to go for a quick ride though so I thought I'd take the Magnolia scenic loop, which turned out to be tougher than expected. First of all, I had to do some climbing right off the bat, and I wasn't really warmed up. Secondly - The Wind! Once I got to the scenic part of the loop, the wind was so strong coming off the Sound that I thought I might get blown over. The noise was so loud I had no sonic cues about my speed, as it always sounded like I was going 30 miles an hour. I did finish the ride strongly though, flying down the east side of Magnolia at over 40 mph, and had a decent climb up Dravus (only stopped once).

Sunday's ride was much better. For the first time since I started riding again, I got the feeling that I was actually riding more strongly after 10 miles. It is a great sensation, and really helps my enjoyment of the rides. I took my usual out and back down the BG, but went a bit past Matthews park this time. I was maintaining well over 16 mph much of the second half of the ride, so my fitness level is definitely improving.

The most odd thing about the ride was the relative lack of other cyclists. Plenty of runners, but really not many of us. Is everyone already hanging it up for the season?